Bladed tools



Oct. 28, 1969 H. KRAMER v 3,474,535

BLADED TOOLS Filed March 29, 1968 1 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,474,535 BLADED TOOLS Hyman Kramer, 2764 E. 16th St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11235 Filed Mar. 29, 1368, Ser. No. 717,185 Int. Cl. B26b 3/00; B2Sg 3/00; A01b 1/00 US. Cl. 30-315 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A bladed tool incorporating a blade head serving not only to connect the handle to the blade but also directly to transmit thrust forces applied to the handle to the blade. Said head is of one-piece construction and has inverted T-configuration, the cross bar portion of which provides clamping means for securing the tool blade and the vertical leg portion of which provides a socket for the butt end of the tool. Between said cross bar and vertical leg portions is a planar, horizontally disposed web. The handle is afiixed to said vertical leg portion in position such that its lower butt end bottoms tight against the upper surface of the web and the head is secured to the blade in position such that the under face of the web bears tight against at least a portion of the upper edge of the blade. The web thus provides a rigid forcetransmitting member between handle and blade.

This invention relates to improvements in bladed tools, and more particularly in bladed tools for uses requiring that substantial force be transmitted in downward direction from a handle to the tool blade, among which tools may be mentioned garden and lawn maintenance tools, ice chipping tools, concrete slab edging tools, etc.

Among the several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of a bladed tool of the stated type which is characterized by an improved handle-to-blade connecting means, hereinafter for convenience termed a blade head; the provisio of a bladed tool which is admirably suited to a variety of uses such as home gardening, lawn and walkway edging, concrete slab edging, and similar uses; the provision of a tool incorporating a blade head which is capable not only of effectively connecting the blade and handle in operative relation but also of insuring direct transmission of thrust applied by the user to the handle downwardly to the tool blade; and the provision of an effective blade head for bladed tools as aforesaid of construction and design lending itself to economical manufacture, to ready assembly of the tool handle and blade therewith, and which is thoroughly dependable in use as an operative blade head.

The above and additional objects and features of advantage of a bladed tool incorporating the improved blade head of the invention will appear to be obvious from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying illustrative drawings thereof, wherein- FIG. 1 is a broken-away perspective view illustrative of a bladed tool incorporating the improved blade head of the invention which is designed to provide both an effective connection and a thrust-transmitting means between tool handle and tool blade, it being understood that the blade and handle shown in broken lines are representative only;

FIG. 2 is a broken-away section taken on a vertical plane extending through the butt end of the handle which connects to the tool blade, the view illustrating the manner in which the blade head of the invention cooperates with the handle and blade in insuring direct transmission of thrust forces applied to the handle to said blade;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are a broken-away side elevation and an end view, respectively, of a modified tool blade-to-handle 3,474,535 Patented Oct. 28, 1969 connection made possible to a tool head according to the invention; and

FIGS. 5 and 6 are broken-away views illustrating the versatility of a blade head of the invention in connecting dilferent forms and configurations of tool blade to a tool handle.

Referring to the drawing in detail, a bladed tool as therein illustratively depicted comprises a tool blade 10 rigidly connected to a tool handle 12 by means of the improved blade head generally designated 14 constructed and designed according to the present invention. It will be understood that the blade 10 shown is to be taken as representative of any one of a variety of tool blades as are used in gardening, lawn bordering, walkway trimming and concrete slab edging tools, for example. The handle 12 shown may be of a long or short handle, depending on the particular use for which the tool is designed.

Although having structural features in common with the implement head of the cleaning implement disclosed and claimed in my Patent No. 3,368,230, dated Feb. 13, 1968, the blade head 14 of the present invention differs therefrom in specific structural detail and in the manner in which it functions. More particularly, said blade head 14 comprises a one-piece, inverted T-shaped member fashioned as a sheet-metal stamping and being thus characterized by a cross-bar portion generally designated 16 and a vertical leg or stem portion generally designated 18. Said cross-bar portion, rather than comprising a solid bar, is instead defined by elongated spaced-apart wings designated 20, 22 which extend integrally from and are connected at their respective mid-portions by a shorterlength planar Web 24, and said vertical leg portion is defined by two spaced-apart legs 26, 28 initially integral with said wings, 20, 22 and web 24 but which in fabrication of the head, were cut away from said wings and bent relatively upwardly from the web along lines of bend a and b defining the opposite ends of said web by an angle of approximately thereto. As best seen in FIG. 1, the free upper portions of said legs 26, 28 are shaped to extendalong opposed arcs which together with the upper planar surface of the web 24, define an upwardly opening, closed-bottom socket for the reception of the butt end of tool handle 12. Said end of the handle 12 is preferably secured to the tool head 14 by means of one or more transverse bolts, one said bolt designated 30 being shown in FIG. 2, and the blade 10 is connected to the head 14 as by rivets 32a, 32b passed through the outer ends of the wings 20*, 22 and the upper edge portion of the blade which is interposed therebetween.

However, despite the above features of similarity therewith, the blade head 14 of the invention is assembled differently to the tool blade and handle and functions quite differently than the implement head according to my aforesaid Patent No. 3,368,230. More particularly and as is clearly seen in FIG. 1, the outer end portions of the initially widely spaced-apart wings 20, 22 of the blade head are brought together to closely embrace the upper-edge portion of the blade 10 prior to the application and setting of the aforesaid rivets 32a, 32b and thus said'wings function as clamp jaws which tightly receive said upper-edge portion of the blade between them. Consequent to this bringing together of the wing outer-end portions, the intermediate or central-length portions of said wings are also brought together, at least along their lower edge portions by an amount as substantially closes any space between said wing portions and the adjacent faces of the tool blade 14.

A second and major difference in manner of assembly and functioning between the presently disclosed and claimed tool blade head 14 and the implement head according to my aforesaid Patent No. 3,368,230 resides in the utilization of said head 14 as a means for insuring direct transmission of thrust forces applied to the handle 12 to the tool blade 10. In explanation, the blade head 14 provides for assembly of the handle 12 thereto with its butt end resting squarely on the upper flat face of the planar web 24 which with the vertical legs 26, 28 defines the aforesaid handle-receiving socket, and it further provides for assembly of the blade 10 therewith in such relative positions that the upper edge of said blade engages tight against the under flat face of said web. Thus, with the cross bolt or bolts 30 being disposed to secure the handle 12 to the head 14 with the butt end of said handle resting squarely and tightly on the web 24 and with said rivets 32a, 32b being disposed to secure said head to the blade 10 with the web squarely and tightly abutting the top edge of the blade, any downward thrust force applied to the handle 12 is of necessity transmitted directly to the blade 10. In such an assembly, the cross bolt or bolts 30 and the rivets 32a, 32b serve primarily as parts-connecting means since they are not required to transmit any substantial amount of thrust forces applied to the handle to the blade 10.

According to a further feature of the invention, the upper edge of the blade 10 is in eifect custom-fitted to the head. Such is achieved according to the FIG. 2 form of head-to-blade assembly by providing a cut-out 34 in the top edge of the blade 10 of width substantially equal to the space between the lines of bend a and b which de fine the end edges of the web 24, and of depth as to seat the root portions of the vertical legs 26, 28 of the head, Le. the portions thereof which connect and merge said legs into the said web. Such an arrangement provides for ready centering of the blade head 14 with respect to blade 10 during the course of the tool assembling operation, and it further adds a degree of stability to the handle in that it prevents any unwanted angling of handle with respect to blade in the plane of the latter. If considered necessary or desirable, the material of the blade defined by said cut-out 34, rather than being actually severed therefrom, may be bent in manner as to reinforce and/or add width to the bottom edge of said cut-out.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a somewhat modified form of assembling a blade 10a (shown to be a type of blade having a semi-circular cutting edge as characterizes certain edging tools) to a head of the invention. More particularly, said head 14, which is identical to that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, clampingly receives between its wings 20, 22 an upstanding, centrally disposed projection designated 10p provided on the effective upper edge of said blade, which projection has width and height substantially equal to the width and depth of the wings 20, 22 of the head. Said efiective upper edge is shown to be comprised by spaced-apart right-augularly extending aligned flange sections 10] disposed to the sides of said central upward projection 10p. Generally speaking, the amount of extension of said flange sections 10f from the blade equals the height of the said projection 10p, and thus said projection and flange sections may be simply provided on the upper edge of said blade 10a by cutting away the flange-forming sections from the central portion which ultimately constitutes said projection 10p and then bending said sections outwardly from the blade proper. It is to be understood that the head 14 and blade 10a will be assembled with the under face of the web 24 of said head bearing tight against the upper edge of the projection 10p, thus insuring direct transmission of thrust forces applied to the handle to the blade 10a.

In explanation of the aforesaid flange sections 10), such are conventionally provided on a tool used to edge a concrete slab (such as a sidewalk slab) during the laying thereof. By bearing on the top surface of the slab, said flange sections serve to limit the depth to which the blade proper 10a of the tool can be forced into the slab along its edge portions.

FIGS. and 6 illustrate the applicability of a blade head 14 according to the invention as a means for connecting the handles to the blades of tools of types other than those shown in thte earlier numbered views. More particularly, FIG. 5 shows the blade 10 as being bent along a transverse line so that it may function somewhat as a hoe. FIG. 6, on the other hand, shows the blade head as one serving to connect a blade which is curved transversely (as characterizes certain forms of shovels) of the tool handle. In both the FIGS. 5 and 6 forms of tool the lower or butt end of the handle will seat tight against the upper flat face of the blade-head web 24, and the upper edge of the tool blade will bear tight against the flat under face of said web, just as in the prior described forms.

By substituting detachable means for securing the blade head 14 to the blade 10 for the rivets 32a, 3222 which permanently secure said parts, a blade head of the invention may be employed to connect any selected one of a plurality of tool blades to a handle such as the handle 12. That is to say, a blade head either with or without a handle attached may be sold as a knockdown tool part, together with a plurality of different blades (and dilterent length handles, for example, if head and handle are unattached). Such arrangement makes it possible for the purchaser to mount one blade best suited to a particular job, and thereupon to demount same as required for tool storage or as a preliminary to substituting another blade better suited for the next job.

Without further analysis, it will be appreciated that a bladed tool employing the improved blade head characterized and assembled to handle and blade in the manner illustrated and described achieves the desirable objects of the invention set forth in effective yet simple and practical manner. However, as many changes could be made in carrying out the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A bladed tool of the character described comprising, in combination: a One-piece blade head having inverted T-configuration and including a cross-bar portion and a vertical bar portion extending centrally and upwardly therefrom; a blade affixed to said cross bar portion and a handle afiixed to said vertical-bar portion; said cross-bar portion comprising a pair of generally parallel, spaced apart, elongated wings extending at a right angle from the sides of and being connected to one another at their upper middle-length edge portions by a shorter length, fiat connecting web extending between said edge portions, said vertical-bar portion comprising a pair of spaced apart legs extending generally at a right angle from the ends of said web and comprising root portions adjacent said ends and upper portions which are shaped to the curvature of the handle; said web and legs defining a socket and the lower end portion of the handle extending into said socket for the full depth thereof whereby the lower end surface of the handle bears directly on the upper surface of the aforesaid fiat web; said blade having a generally U-shaped, upwardly-opening cut-out in its upper middle-length edge portion, said web and the root portions of said legs extending into said cut-out for the full depth thereof whereby the under surface of said web bears directly on the upper edge portion of the blade which defines the bottom of said cut-out, such arrangement providing that downward thrust applied to the handle is transmitted directly therefrom to the blade; and means including said wings for afiixing said head to the blade.

2. A bladed tool according to claim 1 wherein the width of the cut-out in the upper edge of the blade is substantially equal to the spacing between the end edges of said web and the root portions of said legs whereby such portions of the head which extend into the cut-out are closely fitted thereto.

3. A bladed tool according to claim 1, wherein the material of the blade defining said cut-out is retained and is bent out of the plane of the blade in manner as to reinforce the bottom edge of the cut-out.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Kelley 30641 Mess et al 30623 Bruce 30631 Celler 30-315 X Cochran 30-315 Habig 30-315 6 2,032,757 3/1936 Kschadow 30315 X 3,368,230 2/1968 Kramer 15-105 FOREIGN PATENTS 5 792,655 10/1935 France.

846,413 8/1960 Great Britain.

ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner 10 I. C. PETERS, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

